CollabFeature, as studio and production house has a serious aim to create work that is representative of many viewpoints within the same narrative structure. Its latest offering, The Train Station, is best described as a cohesive, yet non-linear romp through concept and time that leaves the viewer with a sense of how all the threads in a narrative work together to take a person to a final destination.
A man is not sure whether to wait to board his late train, or to go home. We see many permutations of his decision. A woman stands in the street flinging a suitcase around after getting locked out of her home — after being stalked in a restaurant. A car swerves to miss her. It crashes. But suddenly this woman is a man walking on a golf course — and the narrative flows together like the threads of a life lived with great regret tinged by some joyful moments. What’s surprising is that the person the narrative follows is actually, no matter how they have been conceived by one of 40 directors, the same exact character, which is a refreshing take on the fluidity of gender and its perception.
The Train Station is more than a film that details the inner dialogue and narrative related to travel, or the Bergsonian circular nature of time that inspired many writers and filmmakers of the modern era.
This film is more than an ambitious project involving 40 directors, pastiches that reconceptualize similar bits of narrative from different cultural and narrative perspectives, and pastiches of critical favorites of the past with sequences involving red balloons and trains.
It depicts how all of our choices add up to one singular narrative and are aggregate of one complete and total reality. It’s about how we’re all different, and yet, in some ways very much the same.
It’s also an excellent film made on fewer resources and with a more interesting structure than most. It’s won awards at seven festivals and is soon to break the Guinness World Record that CollabFeature already holds for a prior film, The Owner, which had 25 directors, the most ever involved in a feature film.
Don’t miss it.
Daniel Montoya’s film, TRAIN STATION by CollabFeature (http://www.collabfeature.com/ ), written and directed by an unprecedented 40 filmmakers from 25 countries, follows a single main character played by different actors from different countries, will be screening at the Latino Cultural Center of Dallas (2600 Live Oak St, Dallas, TX 75204), for free for one night only on March 22 at 7:30 pm (with reception at 6:30 pm.)
Check out these photos and clips with filmmaker Daniel Montoya, and actors actors Bob Coonrod and Paul Douglas as they talk more about their unique section of the film which features slapstick comedy stylings.
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Human Decency is Key 